Seller dies, what next?

Pearl1

Hi, any advice/info would be appreciated.
We were on the verge of exchanging contracts and then our solicitor told us the seller had died. We've now been told we'll have to wait for probate to finalise the estate, this could take a could of months. My main concern is what if the property was bequeathed to a family member who didn't want to sale? We've paid over 1k in solicitor fees already

G_M

The seller no longer owns the property - he's dead - so cannot sell it.

The house is now in the hands of the Executers of the will (or administrators if no will).

They may agree to sell to you, depending on the will, and the circumstances.

Or the house may pass to the Beneficiary/ies who inherit - and he/they may choose to sell to you.

Or not.

At the price you've agreed.

Or not.

Unless you are really set on this property, and time is not an issue, I would start house-hunting again and see what happens.

getmore4less

I would start from the assumption that this could be a long process.

IF they still want to sell it to you then there are things that can be done to make that quicker than waiting for the full probate if needed but you would need to find solicitors that know what they are doing with probate sales.

If the estate is simple then the process can be done quite quickly but you would need to be in contact with the executors ASAP to assess the situation to decide if the beneficiaries are motivated to make the sale happen quickly.

I_have_spoken

Now it's a probate sale, reduce your offer by 10%

davidmcn

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Now it's a probate sale, reduce your offer by 10%

I doubt anybody would accept there's a difference in value between "house being sold because owner has gone into nursing home and is still alive" and "house being sold because owner went into nursing home and has since died".

DTDfanBoy

We had the same thing happen to us when we purchased this property.

We passed on our condolences and let the vendors family know that we were still happy to purchase the property and understood that it would take a while to for them to sort out the estate.

We were lucky that there was no chain to collapse, and the vendors family still wanted to go ahead with the sale. It added about 6 weeks to the process, and we lessened the time by exchanging and completing on the same day.

Pearl1

Thanks all, waiting on probate to finalise the estate, we'll go from there

stator

Certainly put your side on hold until you know. Wouldn't hurt to start looking elsewhere.

Out of interest, does anyone know what would have happened if contracts were exchanged? Would the estate be held to the contract?

ethank

If contracts are exchanged then the Estate would have to complete.

joannexxxx

Hi there,

we're in the same situation, the house was empty as the gentleman was in hospital, now he's passed away the daughter was dealing with it and now we're waiting for probate ...

Can anyone help me with regards to what questions i need to be asking and to whom?
so far i've asked our solicitor if they can advise on how long its looking to take? is it a complicated process? is there a will?

I've also asked our Estate Agent to get in touch with the sellers solicitor to find out the same and also how long its looking to take so we can make the decision whether to wait or not?

Thanks

Snakey

It happened to us, and it didn't make any difference to anything. The key is information - if you can find out who the beneficiaries are and what they want, then you might have instant reassurance that it's not going to be a problem.

Often it's an old dear who's gone into a nursing home and the people who were selling on her behalf are the same people who are set to inherit (i.e. her adult children). You can be fairly certain that if they didn't want it sold because one of them was hoping to live there when she died and could afford to do so, it wouldn't have gone on the market in the first place.

In our case, it was a son and daughter and they were delighted that there was a sale just about to go through as they got their money faster - sure they could have changed their minds, but then any seller could change their minds.

If on the other hand it was the old gent who was selling, and you suddenly find yourself faced with a sole beneficiary who's always wanted to live there, at least if you know that then you won't be hanging around.

[Edit: actually, I should correct this. Our issue was that the estate *might* have to go into probate. In the event, it did not as it was below the IHT limit. Or something like that... it was a long time ago. So I don't know what happens in terms of delay if it does need to go into probate. But I think my comments about whether the sale will outright fall through remain valid.]